The Darkness in Light
by WhenIHearThatOldSong
Summary: For a moment it appeared that the world had frozen but as the rest of the room began to cheer, a wave of mind numbing fury swept through her. She screamed out his name in a voice full of pure, unadulterated hatred, "POTTER!" Hermione has a secret. One that she will go to extraordinary lengths to keep hidden until the time is right.


**A/N: While I am an avid reader of FanFiction, I've never actually tried to post my own story before so ... here goes nothing. I don't want to bore anyone with a massive long note at the beginning so I'm just going to say enjoy my story (I apologise in advance if you find any spelling or grammatical errors) :) and if you don't like it then please feel free to let me know why. Also, DISCLAIMER - In no way, shape or form do I own anything that you might recognise in this story. I do however own the plot, which came straight out of my (probably slightly twisted) imagination.**

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**Chapter 1**

Alyssa Electra Riddle sat very still on her bed, her left arm stretched out before her. The electric blue eyes which had given her her name were fixed on the image tattooed into her snowy white skin. Mesmerised by the eerie, ethereal beauty, her long fingers, so much like her father's, hovered over the image, tracing the shapes of the snake as it hissed and twisted out of the gaping mouth of the skull, mere millimetres of air separating them from the inly black mark. And then, suddenly, the spell was broken … "Hermione?"

Alyssa gritted her teeth and growled in frustration as she waved her hand and instantly transformed. Silky raven black waves of hair became a disgustingly bushy dull brown mess, electric blue eyes turned the colour of mud and her face gently shifted. She no longer looked disconcertingly beautiful and aristocratic, she was simply plain. Plain, boring, mudblood bookworm Hermione Granger.

She had only just finished rolling down her sleeves when the annoying red-headed brat burst through the door. Alyssa managed to place a convincingly friendly smile on her face and said "Hi Ginny".

"Hermione!" the girl sang once more as Alyssa only just managed to stop herself placing a silencing charm on the girl to get rid of the piercing shriek that was being emitted from her mouth. "Harry asked me to get you; he said he's got something to tell you and Ron."

Only years of practice allowed her face to stay neutral, not betraying the waves of hatred that overtook her at the sound of his name. Harry. Harry Potter. The-boy-who-just-wouldn't-hurry-up-and-die. The-boy-who-deprived-her-of-her-father-for-thirteen-years-of-her-life. She stifled the angry growl that was growing inside her. All of this was his fault. If he had only done the world a favour and died that night she wouldn't be in this position now, would she? Spending the past six years of her life pretending to be a filthy mudblood. Still, she thanked the red head and got up. She had a part to play and she played it well. Taking a deep, calming breath she hurried out of the room, down the stairs and into the common room. Ugh, Gryffindor. So much tacky red and gold! Now why couldn't they have chosen understated and sophisticated colours, like the Slytherin green and silver? She was lucky she was so good at magic. The confundus charm to make the sorting hat believe her disguise had been child's play for a witch of her standards. Luckily Alyssa already knew what this would be about so she had already carefully schooled her emotions so that there should be no chance of them taking over like the first time the Potter brat had demanded she and the male Weasel listen to what the old fool Dumbledore had to say about her father.

_FLASHBACK_

_She had been on edge all evening because Dumbledore had called Potter in to meet him, with the promise of extra lessons. Alyssa wasn't stupid either, she knew exactly what those lessons would entail – tips on how to kill her father, again, as if it wasn't bad enough that the brat had already destroyed him for thirteen years. She had been nervously pretending to read in a corner when she saw him enter the common room and she hastily threw the book aside as he made his way over with the Weasel in tow. When they arrived, Potter had proceeded to tell them both about the memories Dumbledore had shown him of her grandmother Merope and her muggle grandfather Tom Riddle Senior. That piece of information had really thrown Alyssa, who was suddenly struggling to regain her composure through the force of the blood pounding angrily in her ears. Half-blood? HALF-BLOOD? How dare the old man suggest something so…so… vile! There was no way that her father, Tom Marvolo Riddle, Lord VOLDEMORT had a filthy muggle animal as a father, no way! Was there? As quick as she could she had excused herself under the pretext of needed to go to the library, an excuse so well used that neither of the idiots would think to check and hastily concealed herself in a secret passage out of the school before disapparating straight into her father's study. Of course, normally she would never be this impolite but, damn it, this was an emergency. Luckily her father had been instantly able to sense the rage which was growing stronger with each second that past and was already trying to calm her down by the time she reached his desk, although this didn't stop the yells which were exploding from her mouth, "Is it true? _Potter_ seems to be under the impression, thanks to Dumbledore that you are some kind of HALF-BLOOD and that your father was a MUGGLE! Please, Father, PLEASE tell me this isn't true! It can't be … you can't be related to one of…of…._THEM_!" Luckily she was hastily interrupted before she could shout any more by the sound of her father's slightly evil sounding laugh as he muttered to himself, "he bought it! The old fool actually bought it! Dear god, and he's supposed to be the greatest wizard of all time! HA! Can't even tell a real memory from a made up one! Oh this is too much, this is so much more than I could have ever hoped for…" Alyssa cleared her throat loudly, demanding an explanation, which her father happily gave, "Dumbledore needed to believe I had a weakness. If he thinks there is a way to get to me, to manipulate me, then he would be so concentrated on that that he would lose focus on everything else. I created a whole set of false memories leading him to believe that my mother had fallen in love with a muggle and died giving birth to me at a muggle orphanage. I even planted a false memory inside _his_ head, a memory of the first time he met me at the so-called orphanage. So don't worry yourself 'Lyss, I am in NO way related to ANY muggles, the Riddles were a magical family that simply kept themselves well hidden and I have never set foot in a muggle orphanage for any reason other than feeling bored and needing something to do." By now, Alyssa was also laughing, partly in relief that her blood was still pure, but also at the complete stupidity and naivety of that idiot Dumbledore._

_END OF FLASHBACK_

Looking around the common room, Alyssa saw Potter and the other Weasley sitting in the same dark corner of the room and walked over with an expectant expression on her face. Of course she was expecting to end up somewhere between amused and bored half to sleep but they didn't know that. She sat down and immediately gave up listening as Scar-Face started droning on about more of the false memories her father had planted. She had to admire his dedication to the task, there did not seem to be a single loose end to whole deception. That is, until she heard it, "Horcruxes". How could he have found out? How could her father have been so STUPID as to leave a memory of them lying about for any meddling old goat to find? Outwardly, Alyssa managed to keep herself in control, but inwardly she was screaming. She had to warn him!

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**Should I carry on? Or just forget I ever started this? Please let me know what you think :)**


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